Former State Department Spokesperson and former Obama White House Senior Director Nayyera Haq reacted Saturday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” to the report that the U.S. is preparing charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

Haq said arresting Assange could just be a “strategic play” on the Trump administration that could “completely backfire” on them.

“[W]e’re going to have to see this is really not a strategic play by this administration,” Haq proposed. “They’re now trying to play some clean-up. Bringing in Julian Assange could completely backfire on them and the information releases, but it also shows us Putin is better at this game than our folks here are in the administration. This is a top-level spy stuff that is going on.”